Tess tri’s – journey to my first triathlon

Right then.

I’ve been talking about it enough on and off for the last two years, but marathon training kept taking priority so it was put on the back burner. However,not doing Fort William Marathon in July means I’ve got the whole summer to get my head down and finally get ready for my first triathlon.

YAYYYYYY 🙂

Last night was a big night for me. I did something I’ve never done in all of my 29 years – I donned a wetsuit and swam out of my depth in the sea. I say swam, it was more 40 minutes of panicked flapping and snorting sea water with occasional bursts of swimming against the current (which, by the way, was bloody hard work).

I was pretty terrified and had to keep stopping to catch my breath but really enjoyed the realisation that it’s actually really hard to drown in a wetsuit!

I went out with the lovely BTRS family, in the Swimming for Softies session – one of two weekly sea swims designed to build water confidence, practice swimming and for me, get over this fear I have of being out of my depth.

I learnt to swim last year and got to the point where I could do one length without stopping, have a break, and maybe get back for another one, but no more than that, and it wasn’t pretty – lots of work to do to improve technique and stamina.

Sea swimming though – that’s a whole different ball game. I’ve been looking at more swimming lessons in Brighton and pool membership fees as have just changed gyms with no pool, but am really tight for cash at the moment.

And anyway, with a rather large (and free) pool of water spanning the entire coastline, it makes sense to get over it and learn in the sea.

If I can swim in the sea, I can do anything.

Tri hard

So, boys and girls, here we go. Over the next few weeks, expect lots of Tweets and Instagram posts on my training in the lead up to the Human Race Diamond Tri, at Dorney Lake in Eton, 6th September.

Human Race put on a whole series of triathlons and duathlons at Dorney, and having done a duathlon there before, I’m keen to go back for the full shebang. I was actually invited to take part in the Shock Absorber Women Only Challenge on 12th July, but with Glastonbury in the middle and not a lot of time left to train I decided to go for the Diamond Tri to give myself a good shot.

Plus, my hubs wants to do it with me so we do our first tri together, and I don’t think he’ll pass for a woman next month, so I’m thinking the Novice distance will be a good start: 400m swim, 10.6km bike, 2.5km run. Depending on how training goes, I might see if they’ll let me change my entry to the Sprint (750m, 21.2km, 5km), but I don’t wanna bite off more than I can chew just yet so we’ll see…

12 weeks to get race ready – bring it on!

Want to do it with me? Or any other remaining 2015 Human Race event? Visit the website and use the code KISDISCOUNT at the checkout for £5 off your entry!

A fitness blog from Brighton-based endorphin fiend and This Girl Can Ambassador Tess Agnew. My life started when I gave up smoking and got hooked on fitness for fun and wellbeing. Email me at tessagnew@outlook.com